Marvelous Mini Meatloaves & Easy Oatmeal Batter Bread

Here are a couple of easy recipes that I threw together a few days ago to make a hearty "meat and potatoes" kind of meal.  I threw in some steamed broccoli and instant mashed potatoes (I love the Betty Crocker Creamy Butter packages, already flavored, just add water!).  I like these mini meatloaves because it cuts bake time in half and they're convenient and easy for eating and reheating.  The second recipe is my favorite when I'm craving warm, homemade bread.  It doesn't require any kneading and the whole wheat flour and oatmeal help make it a little healthier, too!

Marvelous Mini Meatloaves

Take 1 lb. extra lean ground beef, 1 pkg. (6 oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix and 1 cup water and mix & match your recipe from these options (I made the Italian version):

                                   Seasoning               Add-Ins                      Cheese

Italian                    1 tsp. Italian   3/4 c. spaghetti                  3/4 c. shredded

                                    seasoning                sauce                                   mozzarella

Fiesta                     2 tsp. chili        3/4 c. salsa                           3/4 c. shredded

                                    powder                                                                     Mexican

Mediterranean   1 tsp. dried      3/4 c. chopped roasted   3/4 c. crumbled

                                    oregano                    red peppers                             feta

BBQ                         1 tsp. garlic      3/4 c. barbecue                  3/4 c. shredded 

                                     powder                    sauce                                      cheddar

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and the seasoning until well blended.  Press evenly into 12 medium muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray; make an indentation in center of each with back of spoon.

2.  Spoon add-ins evenly into indentations in meatloaves.

3.  Bake 30 min. or until meatloaves are cooked through.  Top evenly with cheese, continue baking 5 min. or until cheese is melted.  Let stand 10 min. before serving.

Makes 6 servings, 2 meatloaves each.

Easy Oatmeal Batter Bread

Prep:  25 min.

Rise:  1 1/4 hours

Bake:  40 min.

Makes:  1 loaf (12 slices)

1 c. warm fat-free milk

1/4 c. honey or packed brown sugar

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

1 3/4 c. bread flour or all-purpose flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 T canola oil

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. rolled oats

nonstick cooking spray

1.  In a large mixing bowl combine milk, honey, yeast, and salt; stir until yeast dissolves.  Let stand 5 min.

2.  Add flour, egg, and oil to yeast mixture.  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.  Beat 3 min. on high speed, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour and oats until combined.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (45 to 60 min.).

3.  Lightly coat a 9x5x3 loaf pan with cooking spray.  Stir dough down and spoon into prepared loaf pan.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 30 min.).

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake about 40 min. until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped.  Immediately remove bread from pan.  Cool on wire rack.

Cake Mix Cookies

This super easy recipe has been a family favorite for years.  You can make it with any cake mix, and I think I've tried them all!  I think my favorite has been butter pecan.  I recently made a batch of strawberry with vanilla frosting, by request from my coworkers.

Ingredients:

1 packaged cake mix, any flavor

1/3 c. oil

2 eggs

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  You may use an electric mixer if you prefer, but I generally mix by hand with a wooden spoon.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls (or use a cookie scoop).  Bake 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, flatten slightly.  Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes (my cookie scoop makes slightly larger cookies, adjust times accordingly).

Frost cooled cookies with canned frosting, if desired.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com recently and it baked up into a moist and delicious treat!  I like to have muffins on hand to heat up in the mornings so I actually baked some of mine in a muffin pan and then just poured the rest of the batter into a normal loaf pan (adjusting the cook times accordingly and checking them often).

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 c vegetable oil

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 c white sugar (I substituted one c with Splenda)

2 c shredded zucchini

3 c all-purpose flour (I used 1 c all-purpose, 1 c whole wheat, and 1/2 c oatmeal)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 T ground cinnamon

1 pint fresh blueberries

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.

2.  In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.

3.  Bake 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool 20 minutes in pans, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Crepes

While vacationing in Paris earlier this year, I fell in love with crepes.  I ate them every chance I got and, lucky for me, you can find them just about anywhere in Paris.  There are crepe stands on the street, they are on restaurant menus, and there are dozens of creperies that serve nothing but crepes.  My favorite was Nutella and banana, but I tried all different types.  You can even have crepes as a meal, as they don't limit the fillings to just sweets.  Before leaving Paris, I swore that I was going to learn how to make this delicious treat and recreate them at home.  And today, I did just that.  :)

I found this recipe in my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  I mangled my first attempt, but after giving it another go, I was a pro by the time I finished the batch.  In fact, once I got the hang of it, I discovered they're nearly impossible to mess up.  I was busy doing other things so I left them in the pan for varying amounts of time and none burned or were dark at all.  In fact, the longer I let them cook, the easier they were to remove from the pan.

I didn't have any bananas here, so I made mine with Nutella and served them with fresh strawberries on the side and they were pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Even Johnathon gave them his approval.

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 c. milk

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 T cooking oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1.  In a medium mixing bowl combine eggs, milk, flour, oil, and salt; beat until combined (if you've never seen crepes made, don't expect this to look like pancake batter, it's going to be very thin).

2.  Heat a lightly (very lightly) greased 6-inch skillet; remove from heat.  Spoon in 2 tablespoons batter; lift and tilt skillet to spread batter.  Return to heat (the recipe doesn't specify, but I found that a relatively high temperature worked best); brown on one side only.

Makes 18 crepes.  To store prepared crepes, layer cooled crepes with sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container; freeze for up to 4 months.  Thaw at room temperature 1 hour before using.

Saturday, Pancake Day

On Father's Day, Brittany shared a post (here) which explained the pancake tradition for our family. In my home, Saturday is officially known as Pancake Day (I'm just not willing to get up early enough to make them before church on Sundays). My girls LOVE pancakes as much as their Aunt Brittany and they're often asking if it's Pancake Day yet by Wednesday.

I don't very often make pancakes from scratch so I'm not sharing a recipe here, but I love to customize our pancakes by adding a variety of ingredients. The basic mix that I start with is Aunt Jemima's Whole Wheat Blend. They are very good as is, but I rarely leave them that way. I almost always add some vanilla when I mix them up. From there, I choose from a number of add-ins based on what sounds good for that morning. Some of my favorites include: oatmeal, canned pumpkin, applesauce and mashed banana. With most of these I throw in some cinnamon as well. The stack pictured above was perfected by adding a personal favorite: grated zucchini along with cinnamon. Hope you'll try playing with your pancakes, too!

Easy Summer Cupcakes

I got this recipe from my cousin during my recent trip home.  She made it in cake form but I wanted to try cupcakes for us.  I made these for 4th of July weekend and they were perfect for a light summery treat!  This is actually a Weight Watchers recipe, so they're guilt-free!

1 white cake mix

1 can 7up or Sprite

Light Cool Whip

strawberries, hulled & halved

Mix the cake mix and soda in a large bowl.  I just used a whisk but you could use a mixer if you like.  Pour into greased cake pan or use paper liners for cupcakes.  I baked mine according to the directions on the cake mix, but just tried to keep an eye on them when they got towards the end.  I think I ended up pulling mine out a little early and they were done.  They didn't really seem to brown like a cake normally would, perhaps the absence of eggs?  This made about 18 cupcakes for me, but I tend to fill them pretty full.

Let cool completely.  Frost with Cool Whip.  For mine, I spooned the Cool Whip into a large Ziploc bag, cut off a generous tip and piped it on.  I had the whole batch frosted in no more than 3 minutes.  Place one strawberry in the center of each cupcake and you're done!

Obviously this can be altered in whatever way you want.  I originally intended to use blueberries and strawberries for my July 4 theme, but the blueberries were too expensive that day!  You could use lots of different fruits, or none at all.  Top with nuts or chocolate chips or sprinkles, whatever your heart desires.  You can also do this with any type of cake mix, so you've got endless options!  It makes a really moist cake that is oh-so-delicious.

Pumpkin Loaf

Here it is, the final pumpkin treat.  I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and it was definitely a keeper!

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans because it's what I had on hand)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. Put softened cheese, butter, and sugar in mixing bowl. Cream together well. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Mix in pumpkin.
3. In another bowl combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and walnuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour all at once over batter. Stir just enough to moisten. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60-70 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove to rack to finish cooling.